Listening: God speaks at times through people.
We have been looking at the ways in which God can speak to His children. The first and number one way is through scripture. Others ways we have looked at are through desires,doors,promptings and divine appointments. We still have people, dreams and pain that we will study in the next weeks.
Let’s look today at how God speaks through people in our lives.
Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”
There have been those in our life who have laid some of the groundwork for our walk with Jesus. Our parents, our grandparents, sometimes it has been Sunday School teachers or VBS teachers, pastors, maybe it was a neighbor who gave us encouraging words. Those words struck a chord in our heart. They helped us press on to know more, they developed in us a love of God.
Sometimes it may have been a friend who came to us and told us the hard truth about sin in our lives. We read in Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens another.”
It was most probably hard to hear and hard to process. Proverbs 27:6 “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”
A word of caution: When listening and discerning truth we MUST use scripture as a plumbline. Measure what you are given as a word of correction by The Word.
Yes, friends have the right to speak into our lives but God has the final say as to whether what is said is true.
There are several examples of people in scripture God used to get messages to some who may not have been listening to God.
*There was Nathan, who God sent to David to speak of his sin.
*There was Samuel, God used to speak to Saul about his disobedience.
*There was Paul, who spoke into Timothy’s life to grow him up in the faith.
One of my favorite stories is the story of Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son. Jonathan and David were best friends. The story is in 2 Samuel 4:4 “ Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; and his nurse took him up and fled. And it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.”
2 Samuel 9:1 Now David said, “Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
2 Samuel 21:7 “But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the Lord’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.”
2 Samuel 9:6 Now when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, had come to David, he fell on his face and prostrated himself. Then David said, “Mephibosheth?”And he answered, “Here is your servant!”
7 So David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather; and you shall eat bread at my table continually.”
David showed Jonathan’s son kindness that Mephibosheth had not expected.
David was used by God to speak kindness and life to a crippled young man.
Who are the people in your life that influenced you? Who stands in the cloud of witnesses that cheers you on? Those from past generations may have been the one who prayed for you to come to know Christ. Who stands in the shadows of your life and prays for you without you even knowing?
God speaks to us through others in our lives. Sometimes it is the words they say, truth, that God uses to convict us. Sometimes it is a word of encouragement that you had not expected.
Now the question is for whom are you standing in the gap? Are you listening? Listen for that prompting of the Holy Spirit. God will use what you say to build faith in someone.
Babbie Mason “Standing in the gap” https://youtu.be/2kaOkmJmxr0
Standing in the gap,
Freda Reynolds
